Goldwind and Council staff have worked together closely over a period of four months in consultation with legal representatives from both sides to come to agreeable terms.

Council Director of Infrastructure Keith Appleby said the agreement provides certainty to all parties, and will prevent the risk of a protracted dispute in the future.

“We are very pleased to come to an arrangement with Goldwind,” he said.

“Council is very happy with the outcome and Goldwind has indicated a desire to work with Council and appears to be willing to pay fair consideration for damage caused to the local road network by the development, in line with the approval conditions.”

The agreement allows for a calculation of the percentage of useful life of each section of road that will be consumed by vehicles associated with the development. 

Road condition will be independently measured before and after by AARB Group, or another third party acceptable to Council. 

The formula to be used to determine the change in condition is based on road roughness as measured by laser profiling, which is an objective and repeatable parameter to base deterioration on.

Goldwind Australia Vice President of construction programs John Gardner said they were pleased to work with council on this important issue. 

“Council has a good understanding of the cost of maintaining their road network, so with a constructive approach by both parties, it was relatively straight forward to come to agreement on how wear and tear on their roads would be compensated,” he said.

“I think this agreement provides a good outcome for council, the windfarm and the community”.